The medicines regulator has approved the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine it has been announced this morning
The UK has ordered 100million doses of the vaccine – enough to vaccinate 50million people.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said:
“The Government has today accepted the recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to authorise Oxford University/AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine for use.This follows rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by experts at the MHRA, which has concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.”
It is being reported that it has advised priority should be to give as many people in at-risk groups first dose, rather than providing the required two doses in as short time as possible.
Everyone will still receive second dose and this will be within 12 weeks of first.
Professor Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and Chief Investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial, said:
‘The regulator’s assessment that this is a safe and effective vaccine is a landmark moment, and an endorsement of the huge effort from a devoted international team of researchers and our dedicated trial participants.’
‘Though this is just the beginning, we will start to get ahead of the pandemic, protect health and economies when the vulnerable are vaccinated everywhere, as many as possible as soon possible.’
Professor Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, said:
‘This is a day for the team developing the vaccine to celebrate, after a year of extremely hard work under difficult circumstances. Now that the first authorisation or use of the vaccine outside of clinical trials has been granted, we still have more to do and will continue to provide more data to multiple regulatory authorities, until we are able to see the vaccine being used to save lives around the world.’
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